The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval eBook

in the body, his heart is ever with us, we experience
the effects of it in the continuity of the blessings
with which God favours the labours of our missionaries.”
Accordingly, he did not lose a moment after receiving
the decrees appointing him Bishop of Quebec. On
May 19th, 1675, he renewed the union of his seminary
with that of the Foreign Missions in Paris. “This
union,” says the Abbe Ferland, “a union
which he had effected for the first time in 1665 as
apostolic bishop of New France, was of great importance
to his diocese. He found, indeed, in this institution,
good recruits, who were sent to him when needed, and
faithful correspondents, whom he could address with
confidence, and who had sufficient influence at court
to gain a hearing for their representations in favour
of the Church in Canada.” On May 29th of
the same year he set sail for Canada; he was accompanied
by a priest, a native of the city of Orleans, M. Glandelet,
who was one of the most distinguished priests of the
seminary.

To understand with what joy he was received by his
parishioners on his arrival, it is enough to read
what his brother, Henri de Laval, wrote to him the
following year: “I cannot express to you
the satisfaction and inward joy which I have received
in my soul on reading a report sent from Canada of
the manner in which your clergy and all your people
have received you, and that our Lord inspires them
all with just and true sentiments to recognize you
as their father and pastor. They testify to having
received through your beloved person as it were a new
life. I ask our Lord every day at His holy altars
to preserve you some years more for the sanctification
of these poor people and our own.”

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Vie de M. Olier, par De Lanjuere.
As I wrote this life some years ago with the collaboration
of a gentleman whom death has taken from us, I believe
myself entitled to reproduce here and there in the
present life of Mgr. de Laval extracts from this book.

CHAPTER X

FRONTENAC IS APPOINTED GOVERNOR

During the early days of the absence of its first
pastor, the Church of Canada had enjoyed only days
of prosperity; skilfully directed by MM. de Bernieres
and de Dudouyt, who scrupulously followed the line
of conduct laid down for them by Mgr. de Laval before
his departure, it was pursuing its destiny peacefully.
But this calm, forerunner of the storm, could not
last; it was the destiny of the Church, as it had been
the lot of nations, to be tossed incessantly by the
violent winds of trial and persecution. The difficulties
which arose soon reached the acute stage, and all
the firmness and tact of the Bishop of Quebec were
needed to meet them. The departure of Laval for
France in the autumn of 1671 had been closely followed
by that of Governor de Courcelles and that of Commissioner
Talon. The latter was not replaced until three